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Customizing widget draw styles

a widget and drawing style technology, applied in the field of computer animation, can solve the problems of inoperability of widgets, confusion on the part of users, and the conventional methods of displaying widgets that do not work adequately for complex models, and achieve the effect of better accommodating the needs of users' direct manipulation

Active Publication Date: 2009-04-07
PIXAR ANIMATION
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, conventional techniques of displaying widgets do not work adequately for complex models comprising multiple objects or multiple points of control that may be in close proximity.
As a result, the widgets drawn using conventional techniques tend to overlap and / or occlude each other, leading to control confusion on part of the user, and eventually resulting in inoperability of the widgets.
Some software packages work around the above-mentioned problem by simply not allowing more than one widget to be displayed at a time.
However, this drastically reduces the ability of the user to manipulate a model in an efficient manner.
Thus, conventional techniques of drawing widgets fail to adequately provide solutions for drawing widgets concurrently in a manner that is usable.

Method used

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  • Customizing widget draw styles
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  • Customizing widget draw styles

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Embodiment Construction

[0031]In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent that the invention may be practiced without these specific details.

[0032]Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for customizing draw styles of widgets to better accommodate a user's direct manipulation needs. As previously described, a widget is a set of controls that enables a user to transform / manipulate models in 2-D or 3-D virtual space. A model is generally a collection of geometric primitives used to describe the shape of an object. The object may have one or more control points that can be manipulated. Models may include articulated variables (avars) which can change value during modeling and animation. When an avar is changed, either interactively or via inbetweening in animation, aspects of the model which were defined either directly or indirectly using that avar are ...

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Abstract

Techniques for customizing draw styles of widgets to better accommodate a user's direct manipulation needs. A user can customize various attributes of a widget and its manipulators to suit the user's needs. The customizations are stored as a style. The stored style can subsequently be applied to the widget to control the appearance and behavior of the widget. Stored styles may be applied to other widgets and can also be shared between users.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to computer animation and more particularly to techniques for customizing the appearance and behavior of widgets used for manipulating models and storing the customizations for later use.[0002]Software systems or packages that enable manipulation of an object in a virtual 2-D or 3-D space generally provide a set of controls or “widgets” that enable a user of the package to carry out the manipulations. Such packages are used in various fields including computer aided design, computer animation, and the like. For example, most animation software packages provide a set of widgets that allow the user to directly transform (e.g., change position, scale, change orientation) computer generated image (CGI) models in virtual 3-D space.[0003]Each widget may comprise one or more “manipulators” that allow the user to control model transformation. A user can “grab” a manipulator of a widget using a computer cursor and move the manipu...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Patents(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G06F17/30G06F15/16G06F7/00G09G5/02G06F9/44
CPCG06F9/4443G06F17/3028G06F9/451G06F16/51Y10S707/99948Y10S707/99943Y10S707/99942Y10S707/99933Y10S707/99945
Inventor DRUKMAN, MAXWELL O.WEBER, KARON A.RUSS, ROBERTHUNTER, STEVENHAHN, TOMKING, CHRISTOPHER MARTINARCHER, KATRINA
Owner PIXAR ANIMATION